Frantic Heart
by Fukoneko
Summary: She sees him, and wants to know more. Ruby, Sapphire.
**Disclaimer: Pokemon and all of its related characters belong to their respectful owner.**

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Ruby is a man with weird tendencies.

The first time Sapphire noticed this was when he woke up after being rescued by her from falling to his death. Even to this day she couldn't help but shake her head at the memory. The first thing Ruby did when he woke up was mistook her for a pokemon and ordered Nana to bit her, to which she replied with telling Toro to fire an ember to its head causing its already grey fur to turn black. It was at that moment she saw Ruby shrieking like a little girl, _My Nana! I just trimmed its hair!_ he said with his hands holding his cheeks and his high-pitched voice filling the cave.

Sapphire never thought that a man's voice could get that high.

…

Ruby is a man with strange fascinations.

He loves to sew. He make clothes. He grows berries. He trims pokemon. He grooms their fur. He dislikes battles. He loves to dress her up. He participates in contests (which is very girly, yuck) and above all, he always wear a hat.

It's not a normal hat even. Not those with tongues nor those baggy thingies that people wear so they don't get cold (Platina wears it, and Sapphire loves how cute it looks) It's a weird spikey thingy that just seemed out of place to wear on someone's head. The weirdest part is that it's always there. Always. He never took it off. Not when he sleeps. When he bathe (they went to the hot spring in Lavaridge). Not even when it rains and storms outside. He insisted in wearing it so much that he even tied it up with a rope once to make sure it doesn't fell off. To Sapphire who prefers all things natural it's an irritating thing to see. She even once made it her life goal to make him never wear that stupid thing again, because even calling it a hat would be insulting to other hats in the world.

But then Mirage Island happened.

…

Ruby is a man with gifted talents.

Sapphire witnessed it when he took down a group of berserk Grumpig in one move. At that time she reacted like kid and lashed out at him, calling him a sissy that only cared about himself. In reality she hated herself. She who has successfully beaten one gym leader after another was beaten by a boy she saw as a weakling and to be shown their difference in strength like that was too much. She discarded the clothes he made for her. The one she has grown to like. With it fitting her like a glove while allowing her to move freely in the wild. The one with cute pokeball themes bandana and color that matches _his_ eyes. She threw it at him and told him to never come back again. All because she was jealous.

She supposed that at that time, it might be the first time she felt uncomfortable wearing leaves on her body.

…

Ruby is a man with many expressions.

She has seen him laugh when he's praising his pokemon for winning a contest. Smiles as he comforts them when they lost. Cries when his clothes got splattered with mud. Pulls back in disgust when he smelled her odor as a result of not taking a bath for weeks (which is actually fine and not true! Natural is where it's at!) And drooling when he sees pokemon performing "beautifully" in contest.

But beneath all that Sapphire has also seen the side of him he rarely shows to anyone. She has seen his scary expression that he used to calm down frantic pokemon. She remembered how he scanned the room first before he used that look to make sure nobody sees him (oh but she did. With her 3.0 eyesight she saw him clear as day) that expression that reminded her that he is his father's son after all. With the cold, piercing stare that gaze through your heart. Even she was taken aback when she saw a glimpse of it. And she was far away from him.

It reminded her also, of that boy that got hurt because of her a long time ago.

…

Ruby is a man who hides his feelings.

That incident at Mirage Island was all the proof she needs. How dare he tricked her by pretending he didn't remember any of it. Even though she said that she l-likes him and then to have to courage to say he likes her back and then forgetting all of it? The nerve of that guy! Of course she tried to pry it out of him but she always got flustered whenever he saw her with those red eyes she loves so much. Only after a year has passed that he finally admit he's been lying the whole time and Sapphire was about to punch him if only he didn't suddenly swept her off her feet and kissed her.

She promised herself to never fell for the same tactic again, only to be proven wrong throughout the years.

…

Ruby is a man with secrets.

Of course there's his battling capabilities. He always made sure nobody ever finds out about it. Not even their seniors. Even when the other dexholders held a tournament Ruby always excuses himself or lose on purpose on the first match. Some of them are fooled by this but not all. Few with sharper eyes have noticed and even scolded him for doing this. Sapphire remembers some of them being the gym leader with green eyes, the man with red hair, and the champion with red eyes.

His other secret would be the thing he always carry in his backpack. Sapphire always sees him taking it out when he's alone. It's a lighter in the shape of a horn. It's a weird device. The flame doesn't burn your clothes nor your skin. Instead it projected images and a voice that she recognizes. Whenever Ruby sees it he always has a look that not even Sapphire has seen. It's a look filled with sadness and fondness he only reserved for the voice in that flame.

She hates how Ruby never throw that thing away.

…

Ruby is a man with refined palette.

He knows how to cook. In fact, he's the best cook Sapphire has ever known safe for one of her juniors named Dia. She always loved eating Ruby's cooking, and never hesitates to ask for seconds or even fourths of his meals. Sapphire made a rule once that she'll only eat foods from nature such as fruits and fresh vegetables but for Ruby she'll make an exception.

Ruby himself of course is a very picky eater. He never eat junk foods or any instant things. He also never consumes any candies or soft drinks or anything that would leave a bad taste in his mouth and mess with his taste buds. Whenever they went to a restaurant together Sapphire can only pity the poor waiter he's going to interrogate for their menu.

However, once a year Ruby would go to a certain place. In this place he would sit and stare for a while. Sapphire followed him on one occasion, curious on what he's up to. There she saw that before he sat he took a strip of silver paper from his pocket and open it to reveal a chewing gum and there he sat while chewing it in his mouth. Sapphire couldn't believe it at first. Of all the candies in the world Ruby hated chewing gum the most. He said it's pointless, leaves a rubbery taste in his mouth, and just plain horrible and annoying. She kept watching him chew that thing and makes bubble with it. Each one bigger than the last as if he was trying to make it big enough to cover his face.

Then he took out the lighter and Sapphire understood, and she never followed him since.

…

Ruby is the man who loves her.

One day when they were hanging around with the other dexholders, something happened. It was one of the weird antics of their senior named Gold. When ruby was busy grooming Nana Gold was hanging from the tree with the help of his Ambipom and snatched his hat away. At a glance you could tell he was just joking around and this was made true by how much he kept telling Ruby to take off his hat every time they held a gathering like this. At this point Gold's antics was a normal occurrence in the group with Crystal always there to scold him and made sure he gets his just desserts. However when Ruby's scars was revealed the laughter stopped, and all the eyes were focused on them. Gold was frozen on the spot and everyone was holding their breaths. Even Crystal didn't shout at Gold as per usual. Everything stood still until Ruby stood up and asked Gold for his hat back in a calm tone, almost creepily. He puts them back on and everything was okay when suddenly he made eye contact with Sapphire who was just returning from a swim in the river. Suddenly his face scrunched up and he held his hat tightly on his head. Then he packed his stuff and speed off with his Devon shoes and all eyes are pointed at her. No one said anything even though all of them must have questions to ask and soon they all returned to what they were doing safe for Gold who was being lectured by Chris about proper manners.

Meanwhile Sapphire reached for her bag for a towel and was drying her hair when she thought back to Ruby. Even after all this time, he's still like that. She knew why he always kept the hat on, or why he never told her about any impending doom, or why at that time he pushed her into the car when she should've been beside him to control Kyogre, or.. or..

 _..Stupid sissy_

Sapphire kept drying her hair, hoping the towel would hide the tears that slides down her face.

…

Ruby is the man she loves.

She knows this for a fact. She does. She engraved it into her heart over and over again to make sure she won't forget. She loves him so much that it hurts. She always blame herself for reacting the way she did back then. It was the worst thing she has ever done to someone. Because of what she did the man she loves now carry a wound in his heart that changed him forever. And the worst part is that her mere presence caused that wound to spread over and over again. She has contemplated to leave him, in order to not hurt him anymore but she can't. She doesn't want to. She wanted to be there beside him. To never be separated again.

Ruby was already out of sight because of his shoes, and it took Sapphire all day to go to the place she knew he would go to. It was already night when she arrived at the secret base. Sure enough, she saw his shoes at the entrance and a tent was set up inside. She crawled quietly and when he opened the tent she saw him curled up at the corner. When Ruby saw her his eyes widened and he pulled his hat down even more to the point his eyes no longer visible. Sapphire made up her mind and crawled up to him. When she's close enough she pushed him down and before he could protest she put her lips on his own. A muffled surprise was heard and Ruby tried to pry her off when suddenly he felt something wet dropping on his cheek. He peeked from behind his hat and saw a pair of blue eyes spilling their liquid. Those eyes looked at him as if demanding an answer. An answer to what, he doesn't know. Sapphire moved her hands from his chest to his head and gently took away his hat. Ruby tightens his grip and with a weak voice whimpered, pleaded.

 _...don't_

His voice cracked at the end and Sapphire kissed him again as if to assure him that it's going to be okay. He released his hand and she lifted his hat and toss it to the side. She traced the scar with her fingers. It feels rough to her fingertips. She stroke it gently and she could hear Ruby moans quietly. She lifted her fingers and put it on his cheek.

 _I'm okay now_

She said to him with the softest tone she could muster. Without him knowing it his eyes started watering. Sapphire leaned down to lick it off and hug him. Both of them stayed like that for the night.

Come morning Ruby was nowhere to be seen. Sapphire wiped her eyes and stepped outside to find Ruby standing at the entrance to the cave waiting for her, his jet black hair flowing from the wind.

 _Come back to Littleroot with me?_

With a smile she grabbed his hand and ran up to his side, where she always wanted to be.

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 **A/N:**

 **Fukoneko here, and this time it's a story about Pokemon. This is something I wrote on a whim. Somehow I got a mood to write and instead of continuing my other storied I wrote this instead. Franticshipping, I always wonder how so many shipping I know comes from the Pokemon series, and what's with the name? There's even one called Lolishotashipping if I remember correctly.**

 **Oh right, just in case it wasn't clear this is an AU where Celebi didn't alter the deaths in Ruby/Sapphire arc of the story so Courtney and Norman died in this. I just can't seem to make Magmajewelshipping work unless Courtney is dead. Sorry about that. Hope you like the story.**


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